Viewers of The Games were left cheering Colson Smith on after the Coronation Street star beat his personal best in a swimming race – despite not being able to swim just five weeks earlier.
Colson, 23, managed not only to learn how to swim in just five weeks, but he also impressed viewers as he managed to shave precious seconds off his personal best.
Although he came last in the freestyle race, with Wes Nelson storming into first place, followed by in second, Colson was over the moon to complete it in just 47 seconds after his previous personal best of 55 seconds.
He joked after finishing the swim: ‘I’m buzzing! I’m probably the happiest person ever to come last in an event because for me that’s massive.
‘And it’s not even beating 55 [seconds] – I’m at 47 [seconds], which is like 10 seconds quicker than what I did in the last try, so I’m buzzing. Buzzing.’
Viewers shared their pride at his achievement, tweeting: ‘Well done that takes some doing!! Only 5 weeks of swimming!!!!.’
Others added: ‘Colson Smith may have come last, but the fact that he even managed to do that despite previously not being able to swim makes him a winner’ and ‘I kinda love all these to be fair but I feel like I’m really routing for Colson you know.’
Another wrote: ‘Well done. Learnt to swim 5 weeks ago. That’s really impressive’.
Colson has also spoken about losing 10 stone over the past two years after getting into running during lockdown.
He previously told Metro.co.uk: ‘When I first started it was purely to lose weight and in the first two months I probably hated every run I went on. I did it because it was going to benefit me for the rest of my life.
‘In my head, every run was going to make me less fat. Then what I learned was that the runs were the only time in the day I had for me.’
The Games continues on Wednesday from 9pm on ITV.Â
